


Back To School

by KnockoutAdmirer



Category: Transformers Prime
Genre: Academy, Gen, School
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-15
Updated: 2015-03-22
Packaged: 2018-03-17 23:10:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3547244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KnockoutAdmirer/pseuds/KnockoutAdmirer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Knockout finally decides to give school one last go after not being in eduction since leaving primary school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Homophobic and foul language/behaviour may be used in upcoming chapters.

It was his first year, coming to school. He didn't really want to go, seeing as he was starting at year 11, which would be his first ever time back in school. He had attended a primary school once, back when he was still a child. It wasn't the best. He had things thrown at him, he was sent out of the room to calm down after arguments and generally, he believed that the whole world hated him.

Knockout was nervous about starting school again, but after thinking about it, he realised that year 11 was the last year of school. Unless he wanted to apply for sixth form, of course. After leaving early in primary school, Knockout had spent the past years indoors or taking pleasant walks outside, since he had nothing else to be doing apart from buffing his finish and admiring himself.

He left his home, closing the door slowly behind him as he was having second thoughts. "Let's hope this turns out to be a good day..." He mumbled to himself as he started walking to the school, getting a few glances from other Cybertronians on the way stopping by at a cafe to get something to eat before he went into the school.

He grabbed the usual- a sandwich and a can of cola. There were a few other bots his age, who probably also attend the school. He sat down to eat his sandwich, looking over at a group of students, each wearing their school bags. School bag?! Knockout nearly chocked on his food as he remembered that he forgot all about his bag. He finished off his sandwich and continued walking to school, drinking his cola as he walked.

The school wasn't very far from the cafe, and Knockout could already see the top floor of it. After about five more minutes of walking, he'd drunk about two thirds of the cola and reached the entrance to the school. "Wow..." He said to himself, looking up and down the school's futuristic, educational appearance. The school appeared to have up to three floors -including the ground floor- and looking from the front, it had a long wing to the right, two floors high, white walls covering the outside with a mix of coloured and clear windows. The last window on both the ground floor and the first floor appeared to make up the whole wall for the end of the wing. To the left, there was another wing, about the same size, which came out further to the front, so the room to what appeared to be a dance studio was visible behind its two glass walls. The window-walls came up to be the height of the ground floor, but seemed to cover the first floor as well, with black tiled walls which had mirrored lettering covering the space on the front reading 'Cyber Academy'. Knockout couldn't see past that, but knew there was more behind the dance studio. In the centre between the two wings, above the main doors up on the second floor, was a rectangular shaped floor of rooms, which had black tiled walls covering the outside and larger windows overlooking the front of the school. The space from the ground floor to the top of the first floor was completely made from glass, so he could see the hallway that ran on the first floor and the enormous space that would be the canteen and atrium.

He made his way through the main doors, being careful not to bump into the other students who were crowding around each other, trying to get into the school. Some were bearing red badges, which looked familiar, and others wore purple badges, which kind of looked like cats' heads, also familiar-looking. They seemed not to be too fond of each other, and the purple badged students looked pretty mean, and were trying to pick fights with the red badged students.

He stopped by one of the teachers, who was wearing the red badge on his shoulder, and was a fairly big Cybertronian. He was coloured with blue, red and silver and looking at his frame, Knockout imagined that his alt form could be a truck of some sort. "Uh, sir?" He approached the friendly, bold looking teacher nervously.

"Yes?" The teacher replied back, smiling.

"I...i don't know uh where i'm supposed to be..." Knockout said, trying to smile back as best as he could without looking like an anxious idiot.

"Ok, what's your name?" The teacher stepped towards a desk which was the reception for the school, and waved a hand for Knockout to follow.

"Knockout, the name's Knockout."

"Year 11, aren't you?" The teacher asked, not looking up from the data pad he was holding.

"Yes, i believe so, sir."

"Optimus Prime." The teacher looked at Knockout with another friendly smile. "I am Optimus Prime. You're located in the first wing to the right of the school, upstairs on the end. You'll see your name listed on the door."

"Thank you, Optimus." Knockout managed a smile back, feeling much better and less nervous than before. "Oh, before i go, might i ask what those badges are that everyones got?"

"Badges?" Optimus looked fairly confused but as Knockout gestured at the badge on his shoulder, he knew what he meant. "Factions, Knockout. Don't you belong to one yet?"

"...i don't believe i do, sir..." Knockout became slightly embarrassed. "Was i already supposed to be apart of one? Is it bad that i don't belong to one?"

"No, Knockout, it's not too bad. We'll just have to sort you out soon, so it's easier to sort out your classes."

"Which is your faction?"

"I'm the leader of the Autobots. We stand to defend ourselves and our teammates. The other faction belongs to the Decepticons. They tend to be deceptive, hence the name they have. They're the more brutal of the two factions and their leader is Megatron. You'll see him sooner during the assembly to begin the day." Optimus gave Knockout one last smile before saying, "I'd go to your classroom now, if you don't want to be late."

Knockout stood and stared for a second, whispered 'ok, sir' and turned slowly to walk to his classroom, deep in thought about the Autobots and Decepticons. 'I guess i'll find out later...' He muttered to himself, making his way up the main stairs to the right of the atrium.


	2. Small Tour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Smokescreen gives Knockout a very small tour around the school before assembly starts

Knockout quietly approached the door to his classroom and moved a digit down the small list of names displayed on the piece of paper taped to the door. "Knockout....Knockout....Knock,Ouutt..." He mumbled to himself, until he found his name written near the bottom of the list.

He opened the door and sat down near the back of the room next to the window. The desks were arranged so that they were each against the wall, a computer stationed by each chair. There was two rows together in the centre of the room, also with computers. As he looked around the room, he saw several Autobots, and two Decepticons, who seemed to be the only ones in the class. The two sat together, mumbling and chuckling slyly, sitting at the two front computers in the middle of the room. They gave Knockout a quick curious look then simply shrugged and resumed their conversation.

There was a yellow Autobot, which Knockout seemed to remember faintly back when he was quite young. He'd probably grown up to be roughly the same size as him. He glanced over at the bot then quickly turned his gaze back to the Decepticons as the yellow student looked over at him. The teacher walked in and Knockout was almost disappointed to see that she was another Autobot.

She was fairly small, smaller than Knockout in fact. But something about her made her look slightly intimidating and probably not the sort of femme to mess around with. Her frame was blue, and she had some pink on her as well. She looked around the class, and gave an odd look at Knockout as she sat at her desk. "You're the new one, right?" She asked.

Knockout nodded, "Yeah, i am."

"I'm Arcee, your tutor for the morning." She gave a friendly smile. Gosh, the Autobots were friendly. Knockout could think that they were /too/ friendly! "You'll be here every morning, until 9:00, which is when all your lessons start."

Knockout almost didn't really care, so he only nodded and turned his attention back to the window-wall which he was sitting at. A few minutes later, Arcee took the register. Knockout wasn't really paying attention, so he guessed he must've looked stupid seeming as his name was called out by both Arcee and the yellow bot. "Oh, here." He said, embarrassed as he held up his arm.

"Bumblebee?"

"Here, Arcee."

So the yellow guy was Bumblebee. That was his name! Knockout knew he recognised him! Just as he turned around to look at Bumblebee, a student burst through the door. "Sorry i'm late, was busy." He said, as he walked by and sat down next to Bumblebee, giving Knockout a little smile as he did so.

"Busy doing what, Smokescreen?" Arcee asked, sighing as she marked him in the register.

Smokescreen looked around then chuckled "uh, i don't know, but i was busy. It's a monday, Miss. Everyone's late on a monday." He smiled, then looked over to Knockout again "who's the new guy?"

Knockout looked from Smokescreen over to Arcee, who simply gestured that he introduce himself to the class. "I'm Knockout." He said, then shrugged. "Year 11."

"Have you already been shown around?" Smokescreen asked, getting a rude straight-forward "No." from the red mech. "Can i show him around??" He asked Arcee, sounding almost too excited.

"If he doesn't mind, then of course."

"Can i show you around?" he asked, swivelling his chair so he faced Knockout.

Knockout stared over at him for a second then replied "yeah, sure." He already wasn't too fond of this one. Not only was it because he was one of those overly friendly Autobots, but also because he had a better paitjob. Knockout tried not to give a look of jealousy as he checked out Smokescreen's colours.

Roughly ten minutes passed, and Knockout was distracted from looking out of the window when Smokescreen walked over and sat next to him. "You wanna go now? See the school?"

"Now?" Knockout asked, annoyed at how he was pulled out of his thoughts just for that.

"Why not? Now's a great time to do so, our assembly's not till the start of second lesson, and we're all up in our tutor rooms till then anyway."

"...fine, let's go." Knockout stood up and looked around the room. He was hoping that at least a walk around the school could pass the time. He followed Smokescreen to the door and out the class.

"Before i start, i wanna say welcome to Cyber Academy. The name's Smokescreen, but you can call me Smokey." Smokescreen held out a servo for a hand-shake, in which Knockout didn't refuse. "I'm in your year, and from what i've been told, i might be in most of your classes. Same as Bee back in there." He point back to the class. "Well, anyway, this is Right Wing Front. which everybot usually calls Auto Front anyway. The wings used to have different names but since the Autobots and Decepticons mixed, they've changed. We all still use their original names though."

"What do you mean?" Knockout asked, raising an optic ridge as they walked down the corridor.

Smokey looked fairly surprised. "You don't know? Wow, where have /you/ been?" He chuckled then explained, "There was always trouble between the two factions, so the school was divided into two parts. This wing would have been AutoFront, because it's where the Autobots used to all be. The Decepticons were in the left wings, ConFront and ConBack. But Optimus decided to change things and so now we're mixed. There are still fights, occasionally, so i'll watch that finish of yours if i were you." He winked at Knockout, who tried to hide a proud expression knowing that his efforts to keep a good finish hadn't gone unnoticed.

"Well, anyway. Back to the tour." Smokescreen smiled, and held out his servo to the double-doors at the end of the corridor. "That's the way out, you can go straight ahead over to the ConFront wing."

"The confront wing?" Knockout asked, slightly worried, getting a humorous laugh from Smokescreen in response.

"No, Con, Front. As in Decepticon Front. Does sound the same, huh? Anyways, i'm gonna take you over there now." They walked through the corridor, as Smokescreen gave a brief explanation on the classes and teachers they passed. "Oh, these here are the school's toilets. Nobody really uses them, apart from the odd couple, ya know?" He winked, nodding his head over to the toilets as they walked past. "And uh, there's a student here, called Soundwave. He never talks. Ever. And he's the freakiest Cybertronian you could meet." Smokescreen lowered his voice into a whisper, "He has this minicon, who flies around, grabbing information from everything. This Soundwave guy knows practically everything that goes on, he could even be listening into our conversation right now and we wouldn't know it."

Knockout stared into blank space, feeling strange about this student. Soundwave sounds pretty scary, from what Smokey's just said, and the whispering probably didn't help either. "What does he look like?"

"Soundwave? He's huge. Big tall motherfucker. Transforms into a drone, has these huuggee thin arms and these tentacle, cable like things that come out from his waist. Got a visor for his face, too, which i guess is pretty cool." Smokescreen waved his arms about as he described what Soundwave looked like, pulling various facial expressions as he did so. "He's a Con. And he's the most loyal Con i've ever seen in my life. He's always standing around Megatron, following him, doing things for him. Strange, right?"

"So, he's like Megatrons' little surveillance camera crossed with a pet, then?" Knockout asked as they walked through the doors and stopped by to look over the edge of the walkway.

"Hahaha, pretty much, Knockout. Hey, do you have a nickname?" Smokescreen asked, leaning over the side.

"Not really." Knockout sighed.

"How about KO? Can i call ya that?"

"....yeah, KO's fine." Knockout stepped back away from the side and pointed up at the top floor. "What's that part?"

"That's the sciency part of the school. You got all the science classes up there, and a construction work class too, for those who're into it." Smokescreen patted Knockouts' back and walked to the main stairs that lead up to the Science floor. "I'll show ya." Just as Knockout reached the staircase, the bell rang.

"Is that for the assembly?" He asked, walking up the stairs anyway.

"Nah, the next one's for the assembly." Smokescreen ran up ahead of Knockout, and stood at the top of the stairs, only to bump into a large grey mech. "Oh...." The larger mech, the first Decepticon Knockout had seen today, glared down at Smokescreen as he held his hands behind his back.

"Smokescreen," he growled "you know not to run. And you also know that you shouldn't be up here unless you're instructed to by either myself, or Optimus." His voice was deep and hollow, and his optics glowed red as he glared.

"Uh, um yes, Lord Megatron, sir. "

"Go, before i-who's this new mech?" Megatron suddenly lost his glare, and gave a look of interest as he stared into Knockouts' optics.

"....my-my name's Knockout, Megatron."

"/Lord/ Megatron." He corrected the younger mech, stepping down the stairs. "And which faction do you belong to?" He asked, stopping next to Knockout.

"I...don't have one, Lord Megatron." Knockout tried to avoid Megatron's gaze as best as he could, but found that he couldn't.

"Ahh..." Megatron responded in his hollow voice. He grabbed hold of Knockouts' chin and inspected him closely. He huffed then let go and looked the red mech up and down before saying, "The Decepticons might be a good choice for you, Knockout." With that, he made his way down the stairs.

".....oh yeah, i forgot that we weren't allowed up here unless you're taking a course that allows you to do so." Smokescreen said sheepishly, with a shy smile. "You into science and medical stuff?"

"Surgery strikes my mind." Knockout answered plainly. "Does that allow me up here?"

The Autobot leant on the railing for the stairs as he thought. "Should do." He shrugged then walked back down the stairs, Knockout following closely. "Gee, Megatron's such a jerk sometimes."

"...Why does he prefer to be called 'Lord Megatron'?" Knockout asked, as they made their way back down to their class.

Smokescreen snorted as he held in a laugh. "He's the leader of the Decepticons, KO. He'll obviously want that title."

"Well, nobody told me that." Knockout scowled. They got back to their form class and sat back down, Arcee giving them both a weird look.

"That was quick." She said, looking over to Smokescreen. "Did you show him around the whole school already?"

"Nah, not really. Just this first bit then up the main stairs then back down here. I told him a lot of stuff, though didn't i KO?"

"Yeah, actually. A lot of stuff." Knockout said, still grumpy about the 'leader of the Decepticons' business. He sighed then asked Arcee, "When do we-" he was cut off by the school bell, which fully answered his question. "Never mind..." He grumbled, as the class stood up and made their way down to the assembly.


	3. The Assembly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Knockout, Smokescreen and the other students at Cyber Academy go to the assembly, where they see Megatron, Optimus, Soundwave and Shockwave.

They lined up outside the main hall in the atrium, waiting to go inside. Knockout stood next to Smokescreen, looking around at the other bots. "Is this everyone in the school?"

"Yeah, it's a lot, huh?" Smokescreen replied, smiling. He nudged Knockout's arm as the bots ahead of them started walking into the hall. "We're going in now." Knockout followed him through into the hall and was surprised to see how many Cybertronians could fit into this space. The seats provided were apart of one thing, which raised up and back from the floor, much like a staircase. There was a purple mech seated at the very last row. He was pretty big, and didn't have any facial features apart from one single glowing optic. Mumbles turned to quiet whispers then silence as the students filed through and sat down, starting from the bottom (the first row of seats). Knockout imagined that he either wasn't the friendliest of Cybertronians or just wasn't liked very much. "Who's he?" He asked, tapping Smokescreen's shoulder and pointing up at the purple mech.

"That's Shockwave. He's-"

"I thought he had long thin arms? And i don't see a visor on that small helm of his, either." Knockout interrupted, still staring at the mech.

Smokescreen sighed then said, "If you'd let me finish what i was saying, you'd realise that i was talking about Soundwave earlier. That Con's called Shockwave." He nodded over to Soundwave, who was standing beside Megatron at the front of the room. "Soundwave's over there."

Knockout turned his helm to look over from Shockwave to Soundwave and felt slightly embarrassed. "....oh." He sat down beside Smokescreen and stared at Soundwave, not knowing if he looked scary or strangely fascinating. The whole hall went quiet as the last few students scrambled in, rushing to sit down.

A few seconds passed as Megatron and Optimus looked at the students seated before them until Optimus grinned and started the assembly. "Welcome back to Cyber Academy, i hope you all had a good half term. Now, i know the majority of you all have already been here long enough to have an assembly about the rules and expectations, but it's important that we remind you, and any new students about what is expected of you."

Megatron stepped forward with his servos behind his back as he took over. "The most important rule we must be sure you all remember, and obey, would be not to fight. As idiotic as it sounds, we are now clamping down on fighting and anybot caught fighting will be punished as seen necessary." He took a second to send a slight, barely noticeable glare towards two particular students. "Reasons for this decision would include the school's lowering reputation. Cybertronians have viewed our school not as a place for education, but as an arena." Though he wasn't yelling or raising his voice, you could clearly hear his anger and disappointment. "Those who feel the need to fight, can speak to myself or Optimus." He sneered, taking a few steps forward and sending a cold look to all of the students. "We will arrange something for you." He finished off slowly, in a sinister tone.

Optimus Prime gave an equally cold look over the students, but it was harder to find him threatening in any way. "Onto a different topic, other rules and regulations have not changed." His face went back to his normal friendly-looking blank facial expression. "You are still expected to walk around the school. There is no need for any jogging, running or transforming; those can be done outside while on break, lunch and after school. Any cursing or unacceptable language is banned also. If you are caught, expect a warning or detention based on what you have said. As of events occurring the week before half term, we have also banned use of homophobic language, and any homophobic acts."

"How gay" Knockout heard someone whisper mockingly to his friend behind him, followed by some quiet laughter.

Though Optimus didn't hear it, Knockout was sure Megatron did, as he cast the two students a quick glance before making the slightest hand gesture, to which Soundwave nodded and displayed some illegible wording on his visor.

"The amount of students coming into school late has risen," the Autobot continued. "From now, anybot arriving to school at 8:30 will be given a fifteen minute detention on that day."

Megatron led on as Soundwave listed more words onto his visor, probably names of the badly behaved students. "You are all now expected to arrive by 8:25. This rule applies to your lessons; if you arrive five minutes late, you will receive a late mark in the register, which will be questioned after school. Any bad excuses will be ignored and you will join those in detention." A chorus of groans went through the crowd of students. ' _I guess they're all used to hanging around for a while before going into class._ ' Knockout thought to himself.

The three mechs at the front were silent for a second until Soundwave deployed the so-called Laserbeak. It flew up and to a fairly large ledge high on the wall behind them, where it grabbed a bunch of papers with its small tentacle-like cables. It flew back down and retreated back into Soundwave's chest as it dropped the papers into his servos. Megatron gestured to the paper as he said, "As we don't have anymore time for todays assembly, we expect you all to take one of these and read the rules. Hopefully some of you will understand what you should and shouldn't be doing." He gave a look to one of the students in the first row, who shuffled uncomfortably.

Soundwave held up the paper and flipped it around as Megatron continued. "On the back, is a printed form which you need to fill in. You will need to state your name and form class number. This will decide which faction you are willing to join. For those of you who already belong to either the Autobots or the Decepticons, there is an option to say that you already belong to one. You are still expected to note which faction you belong to." Soundwave silently walked over to the doors which led out into the atrium. "Details about each faction are noted on the same page. If you have any further questions about either the rules or the factions, speak to myself or Optimus as you leave."

There was a loud mumble of conversation as the students talked about what they'll do or how bad the rules are. Row by row, the students made their way out, plucking their forms from Soundwave and rushing out of the hall as if the large mech would suddenly attack them. As they went out, Knockout noticed that Soundwave would stand in front of selected few students whose names were still written on his visor. They would turn and grumble to themselves as they walked over to Megatron. "So," Smokescreen began as their row stood up. "Which team are you on?"

"It depends," Knockout sighed. "The Autobots sound nice enough to join, but the Decepticons seem to have something special to them." He looked over to Soundwave. "I don't know though..."

"Ahh, that's fine, KO. Don't worry about it!" Smokey placed a servo on Knockout's shoulder, which the red mech somehow felt was reassuring. "You have this whole week to think about it."

Knockout slowly took a form from Soundwave, looking into the mech's visor curiously. As he stepped outside the doors and looked back for Smokescreen, he noticed that Shockwave had made his way down to Megatron and Optimus. "The new rules suck, huh?" Knockout almost jumped out of his frame as Smokescreen came up beside him.

"Uh-yes, of course." He panicked, then hissed "Don't do that again!"

Smokescreen laughed, "sorry KO, didn't know you would jump like that. Come on, let's go back to form." He said as he started walking, Knockout not too far behind him, reading through the information about the two factions.

' _Maybe the Decepticons would be a good choice_ ' he thought to himself, then looked up at Smokescreen. ' _But then again, the Autobots are...._ ' His thoughts trailed off as he stood and re-read the notes. ' _....why is this such a hard decision?!_ ' He opened the door, almost angrily as he slumped back into his seat by the window-wall.


End file.
